Dal

I was a little surprised as well. So I cancelled the first order and tried again. Postage was fixed- expedited parcel, or whatever it was called, was the only option. On the plus side it would have got the kit to me in 5 to 10 business days. But the $67AUD cost made it too expensive. I asked Dave about it and he let me know that the postage method from Europe to outside Europe was being looked at, as apparently it has generated a few emails. WnW, even though they don't cost much, can be expensive to post due to size. I sent an LVG to a gent in the US a couple of years ago and it cost just over $40AUD for registered post, because they did it by volume (the kit was in a box, to protect it) rather than just by weight. Cheers.

Beardie's right- I had everything ready to go, but the $60+ for postage killed the idea. I hope they have found some more to sell, while I can build the D.Va as an OAW aircraft, there's some schemes I like for a Jo' aircraft as well. As to where they came from, if you're moving warehouses you always find something that makes you say "How the .... did that get there!". And it isn't always a dead possum. If WnW really need to fill the Albatros scout hole in the catalogue, there's always the OEFFAG version of the D.III........

I put them in as you can generally see some, if not all, of them. It's not always easy to work out what you can and can't see, so I do them all. Besides, I think it makes the cockpits seem busier when rigged.

WnW finally tempted me to try WWI aircraft- and now I'm hooked, haven't touched 1/48 scale aircraft for 6 years or so. I was lucky to get started early and before I semi-retired, so had play money to spend and picked up nearly all the OOP kits (got surprised when the W.29 went OOP- it was too far down the buy list). I have 22 WnW kits in the stash with one built, one built and "accidented" (source of spares), and two in build. Yes, I intend to build them all, but know I probably won't live long enough to build them, the Roden, AModel and Hobbycraft kits to which this obsession led me. Rigging: my first WWI kit was the WnW Pfalz D.IIIA. Rigging had scared me off, but turned out to be easier than I thought. I now enjoy it- which is scary- and it's nowhere as difficult as I had imagined. The group at http://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/were a big help with advice and comments, too. SGTSquarehead, Beardies suggestions are good. You may also want to look at the Junkers J.1 (minimal rigging- yes, there is some!- for the tail and a bit internally, should you wish to add it, and the model is big and impressive). There are fit issues with both the Albies and the Pfalz. Just make sure you don't get any paint/excess glue on the mating surfaces, particularly of the inner fuselages, engine bearers and cockpit assemblies, or you'll have "fun" getting the fuselage closed. Compared to Roden kits, or for that matter even Hasegawa WWII types, they are barely worth the mention For first choice I'd go the Pfalz- nice schemes, little that needs "wood-graining" and it has several colourful schemes. Dal.

Beardie, I have that kit but I am using aftermarket decals, should I ever get around to building it. As I won't be needing the kit decals, you can have them if you want to try again. Send me a PM with your address and I'll bung 'em in the mail.

Beardie, I had the same problem you did with Roden decals, when I was doing their N.28. They split, exploded and were stiffer than new boots using warm water. But they can be tamed by using hot water. Don't use boiling water (they shrivel up), but I used water straight out of the hot tap (about 65°C) and they did work quite well. You need to get them in position fairly quickly, though, as once they cool they become brittle again. They respond reasonably well to a hairdryer, or a soft cloth dipped in hot water, being used to smooth them down. Microset works, but they didn't like either Mr Softener nor MicroSol, hence the hairdrier/soft cloth. You may also find that even the darker colours, like dark blue, are a little translucent. On my N.28 I bought SuperScale decals for the national roundels, as the camouflage pattern on the top wing really showed through the kit decals. Edit because of illiterate fingers

G'dauy, Chris. They can look overscale and are too big for some jobs, such as the inter-strut incidence wires. However the 1/48 scale ones are also available and some on http://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/prefer those on 1/32 kits. Some of them can look a little rough, due to the way they're printed, but a thin coat of super glue sorts that out. There's about 30 turnbuckles in each 1/32 set. They're wrong for a Felixstowe, but you'll need a couple of sets, at least, for a Gotha or AEG. Usually you'll only need one per line, which helps. Cheers. Dal.

G'day, Gene. No idea, I'm afraid. I've seen a couple of posts on different boards saying that there's been some minor changes, but I have no idea what they were. Someone on the WWWI Aircraft Models forum may be able to tell you, mate. Dal. PS Steve, people have been waiting (more or less) patiently for about two years for the WNW Camel. I know when it will be issued- when I'm 3/4 of the way through building my HC Clerget kit.

Steve, the kits are the HC ones. The Camel is pre-Clerget/le Rhone kits with the major problems (shape errors, up-side down Vickers, heavy detailing, etc). Matthew, WNW are working on a Camel, according to an interview with Richard. When it's going to be released is the big question. Cheers. Dal.

Steve, I don't believe that the J.1 has ever been OOP, though a lot of people on the WW1 Aircraft Models forum have had it as the next most likely kit to go OOP since the LVG went out (so they've been wrong twice, so far). Cheers. Dal.

I'm not an expert- not even particularly knowledgeable- but my impression was that while the bulk of the info in the books is good, the colour plates and colours referred to in photo captions can be off. A lot of them are said to be based on Pentland's interpretation of B&W photo's, some of which have been shown to be wrong once other evidence was found. I have both books and I wouldn't be without them, really, despite later research. They're at least a decent starting point for RAAF subjects and the huge amounts of photo's they contain (especially of less well known subjects, such as photo-recce Lightnings) are worth the price to me. I also think that there were a couple of cliques who disagreed on various subjects (eg exactly what colour "Foliage Green" was) and much mud was thrown during the various debates. With luck Pete Malone or some ofthe other knowledgeable Aussies will give you a better answer. As Ley said, too, also ask on Aussie Modeller (http://www.aussiemodeller.com.au/forum/). Cheers. Dal. Editted for typo's.

G'day, Antoine. They've got a Salmson 2-A2 on the way (http://www.wingnutwings.com/ww/7BD54DF119CB75CCE7F03B03CF029C96). With Roden, AModel, and Hobbycraft/Academy covering the majority of the SPAD and Nieuport fighters, and SH covering the Morane-Saulnier N, that leaves the HD.1 as the remaining, reasonably-well-known French fighter. They'll probably have to look at mainly doing 2-seaters for the French. If that means they've got a Breguet 14, SPAD 11 or A.R.2 on the drawing board, I'll wait . Cheers. Dal.

G'day. I've found that if you use very hot, almost boiling, water then the decals soften and conform to detail very well. Once the water or the decal starts to cool they get brittle, so you can't move them much. Micro Sol/Set and Mr Mark Softener don't seem to have any effect on them, but they respond well if you use Future/Klear/Pledge/One Go as a wetting agent. The only problem I haven't been able to get around is that they're translucent, but sometimes there's no after market for a scheme you want to do. The roundel is Superscale (the kit one was applied with Micro Set/Sol and silvered badly), the "12" is Roden (1/32 scale). Cheers. Dal.

You don't mean the updated Hobbycraft Camels ("Clerget" and "Le Rhone" versions) do you, PDH? I don't believe Roden ever released a 1/32 Camel. I also wonder what WNW deem as "acceptable"? Hobbycraft's SPAD XIII is fairly poor and converting the wings to the early version is a pain, so I'm hoping they'll look at doing that one. Cheers. Dal

SydHuey, thanks for correcting that. It shows what happens when you trust the same repeated information from several sources (and you'd think ADF Serials would be right, wouldn't you?) instead of doing your own research. I've already done my kit as A28-6 with the single code "G", so I don't have to correct the model. Thanks. Dal.